Chi Rho Connection
Vol. II, No. 21
14 Sep 2001

‘The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that.' Martin Luther King, Jr.

Welcome once again to the Chi Rho Connection, the
electronic newsletter of Chi Rho Press. Thank you for
passing this Chi Rho Connection on to others.

.To join our list, send an e-mail message to
mailto:ChiRhoPress-subscribe@yahoo.com. Please
visit our Web site at http://www.chirhopress.com to see
our entire lines of books, handouts, tchochkas, and
stained glass.

Direct all other e-mail to Adam@ChiRhoPress.com. See
the end of this eNewsletter for a complete list of
e-mail addresses at ChiRhoPress.com.

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Contents:

1. Featured Book Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse
2. The Second Step
3. Upcoming Chi Rho Press Events
4. Don’t Forget These Exciting Opportunities
5. Adam's Last Word

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1. Featured Book Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse

‘Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse’ by Dr. Rembert
Truluck. This, our featured book for September, will help you counteract fanatical, judgmental religion.

Dr. Truluck has identified an important and lethal trend
in the religious community, the tendency to be legalistic
and judgmental and to use the faith and the Bible as a
weapon to hurt people rather than a source of healing and
love.

He concentrates on the Good News of the Bible, Good News
that is for everyone, not just heterosexual white men.
Too often LGBT commentators concentrate on defending
their position that the Bible doesn't really say anything
bad about homosexuality. This is true, and Dr. Truluck
does devote four chapters to the pitifully few verses that
have been used to condemn LGBT people. He effectively
counters those who insist that the Bible condemns Gay
people.

But most of 'Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse' doesn't
dwell on a rebuttal to those who use the Bible to attack
LGBT people, but rather concentrates on those many
passages of the Holy Scripture which speak words of love,
understanding, tolerance, and joy for God's lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgendered people and those who love them.
Dr. Truluck proves that the Bible is our friend!

Dr. Truluck offers a 12 Step program to counteract
a history of Bible abuse in effective and joyful ways.
The 12 Steps, plus a concluding thirteenth step, lead
people through the pain inflicted on us by misunderstanding
of the Bible and legalistic, judgmental religion, and on
into the peace of God's love and acceptance. 'Steps to
Recovery from Bible Abuse' leads people from hate to love,
from fear to confidence, and from pain to joy. It is a
remarkable journey!

We invite you to take this journey with us! Buy 'Steps
to Recovery from Bible Abuse' on the Chi Rho Press Web
site, http://www.ChiRhoPress.com, using your credit card
on our secure shopping cart, or by sending $28.45 ($24.95
plus $3.50 shipping and handling) to Chi Rho Press, P.O.
Box 7864, Gaithersburg, MD 20898.

The first Step is to Admit You Have Been Hurt by Religion.
Now join us in the second Step in the next article.

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2. The Second Step

(From Chapter 7 of 'Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse,'
by Dr. Rembert Truluck)

The Second Step: Turn to God for Help

Pray and ask God to guide you into a healthy spiritual
life and into a Christ-centered use of the Bible. God
wants you to be happy and to feel good about yourself.
God, as you understand and experience God, is very
personal and individual. Nobody else can give God to you.
This is why all recovery programs encourage you to turn
your life over to your ‘Higher Power’ or to God as you
understand God. Your sense of self-esteem and self-worth
depends on your view of God.

‘Be anxious for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and
supplication let your requests be known to God. And the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’
Philippians 4:6-7

‘Cast all of your anxiety on God, for God cares for you.’
1 Peter 5:7

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3. Upcoming Chi Rho Press Events

Sept. 15, Adam DeBaugh will be teaching a beginners
stained glass class at Holy Redeemer MCC, College Park,
MD, (www.holy-redeemer-mcc.org), at 10 am. Each
participant will have the opportunity to make a small
piece of stained glass, a sun catcher like a cross or
other design. Another larger work in progress will be
there on the site for people to see and even work on.
The cost will be $5.00 to cover the cost of materials.
If you are in the Maryland, DC, or northern Virginia
and would like to sign up, please write him at
Adam@ChiRhoPress.com.

Sept. 16, Adam will be participating in a training of
Scripture readers in worship services at Open Door MCC,
Boyds, MD, at 11:30 am, following the 10 am morning
worship service. www.opendoormcc.org

Sept. 23, the Chi Rho Press Traveling Bookstore will be
at MCC Richmond, VA. www.mccrichmond.org

Nov. 9 and 10, the last Mid-Atlantic District Conference,
Hagerstown, MD. Chi Rho Press will have a book table in
the Conference Book Store, selling books, handouts,
stained glass, videos and tapes, and other items.
www.mcc-midatl.org

Nov. 25, Traveling Bookstore at Imago Dei MCC, Media, PA.
www.imagodeimcc.org

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4. Don't Forget These Exciting Opportunities

Become an Angel On-line! You may make contributions
to the ministry of Chi Rho Press on our Web site,
http://www.ChiRhoPress.com.

Over the summer, Chi Rho Press launched its Guardian Angel
Individual Sponsor Program. The support of our Guardian
Angels will help the Press to publish new books and build
this ministry.

To put contributions on your credit card, using our secure
shopping cart on our Web page, go to
http://www.chirhopress.com/frame_sponsor.html

Highlight the numeral 1 in the box and type in the amount
you want to contribute (for instance, $150 to become a
Guardian Angel). Click the Add to Cart link to the right
of the amount box and the Shopping Cart will come up
and you can either continue shopping or click on Check Out
Now, which will take you through the check out process,
asking you for your credit card number, etc. Be sure to
give us your mailing address as well as e-mail address so
we can send you your welcome gifts.

If you have specific questions about the Guardian Angel
Program, you may e-mail us at Angels@ChiRhoPress.com,
or telephone us at 301/926-1208.

*****

New Promissory Notes are now available. The Chi Rho Press
Board of Directors has authorized the issuance of new
Promissory Notes. We have recently paid off the first four
of the 17 Notes that are outstanding, and the Board feels it
is timely to offer additional notes to continue our full
capitalization program.

As before, $1,000 Promissory Notes are available from
Chi Rho Press, at 8% simple interest, repaid in eight
quarterly payments over a two year period.

Write Adam@ChiRhoPress.com for the text of the Promissory
Note, or send your check for $1,000 (or $2,000, $3,000,
or even $5,000!). We will send a signed Note after the
receipt of your check.

*****

'The Road to Emmaus' an inclusive daily devotional by and
for LGBT people of faith, $9.95 each, six or more copies
for $7.50 each, plus shipping and handling. Please order
it on our secure shopping cart on our Web site at
http://www.ChiRhoPress.com. (Subscribers to the Chi Rho
Connection also receive the Chi Rho Reflection at the
beginning of each week, featuring a reading from 'The Road
to Emmaus' from that week.)

*****

Chi Rho Press author and Pennsylvania activist Roberta
Krieder is now featured in a new video produced by
John Davis. The new video, 'Family Stories: Journeys of
Spirit in Mixed Orientation Families' produced by John
Davis, featuring Roberta Kreider (compiler of 'From Wounded
Hearts') and Mary Lou Wallner, with an introduction by the
Rev. Peter J. Gomes. VHS format, color, 35 minutes,
$29.95, shipping and handling included. It is only
available through the mail. Please send your check or
money order for $29.95 to Chi Rho Press, P.O. Box 7864,
Gaithersburg, MD 20898. Pre-paid orders only please.

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5. Adam's Last Word: Reflections on a Tragic Week

Last week my Last Word was a panegyric on the fanatical
fundamentalism of religion, what some people in every
religion do to twist and pervert the message of God. One
correspondent this week called that screed ‘almost
prescient,’ a forecast of the horror of this week.

It has been a difficult week. Tuesday, Sept. 11th was
simply a horrendous day. We didn't get very much work
done, needless to say, as we watched well-known buildings
burn and collapse and waited for the next disaster.

Rumors were all over the place. News outlets reported that
a car bomb went off at the State Department, the Capitol
was on fire, a plane had hit the Treasury Building, no it
was the Old Executive Office Building next to the White
House -- all untrue as it turned out.

But the truth was just as horrible and appalling. My
friend Ron watched the Pentagon burn from his 8th floor
flat in the Cairo near Dupont Circle. It took my friend
Mark over an hour to ride his bike home from his job at
the Environmental Protection Agency when they closed the
government and evacuated all the buildings -- usually a
10 minute bike ride. And much more tragically, an old
friend worked on the 89th floor of one of the World Trade
Center towers and I have not heard from him or been able
to reach him.

I grew up in New York. I love to drive to New York from
New Jersey or Long Island and watch the skyline loom up
across the river, punctuated mid-town by the Empire State
Building and the lovely graceful Chrysler Building and
anchored way downtown by the two huge towers of the World
Trade Center. The anchor is gone now. I don't know if it
will be easy to look at my hometown skyline again.

Here in my new home I often take a route that passes right
by the Pentagon on my way downtown, especially if I am
going to MCC DC. The gaping hole and blackened walls of
that side of the Pentagon will be hard to look at.

And though we are not yet completely sure, it appears that
these atrocities were committed by religious fanatics.

It is important to remember that the last time we as a
people felt like this, unknown terrorists had blown up a
Federal building in Oklahoma City. The assumption was that
it was the Arabs, that Islam was somehow responsible. But
it turned out to be a lanky, blond-headed American boy,
helpfully trained by our own military. Go figure.

Jumping to conclusions is the only exercise some Americans
get. But we can't let our assumptions control our actions.
Not all followers of Islam are terrorists. The terrorists
are the real heretics, twisting the Koran to their own
perverted uses. Sort of like Christians can do when it
comes to homosexuality.

Despite all the horrors America has unarguably committed
and the wrong-headedness of some of our leaders, it is
hard to look at all this disaster and feel anything but
fierce pride and patriotism. I hope that feeling doesn't
translate into American horrors against whatever Arab or
Muslim country can be connected with the attacks on us, and
especially on individual Arab or Muslim people.

The President's missile defense shield seems a little silly
now -- our enemies don't need missiles when any handy
American Airlines 767 filled with jet fuel can get through
to it's target without even a fighter jet being scrambled
to try to stop it. Our strongest symbols of American
financial and military might can be shattered not by
missiles or nuclear bombs, but by determined fanatics
with knives on a commercial airliner.

In stark contrast to the craven acts of knife-wielding
barbarians there is another face of America. It is seen
in the bravery, commitment, love, and compassion of
thousands of people who are groping through the rubble,
sometimes with their bare hands, trying to find any left
alive in the huge pile of junk that used to be the World
Trade Center. It is in the thousands lining up to give
blood. It is the millions who are thronging their
churches, synagogues, and mosques to pray. I like to
think that this is the true face of America and indeed the
world.

Even people of the strongest faith are tempted to ask,
Where is God? How can a loving God allow this to happen?
Where is God in all this?

It is my belief that we CAN see the hand of God in this
situation. But not in the disaster itself. God is not
found in the disasters that befall us. God is found in
our response to those disasters. God didn’t hijack and
crash four jet airplanes. But God does inspire our loving,
caring responses the rescue workers, the police and fire
fighters, the medical personnel, the heroes and heroines
on the scene in New York and at the Pentagon. And God is
found in us ordinary people who stop to grieve and pray,
who give blood, who light a candle.

Similarly, God will not be seen in the Americans who throw
bricks through mosque windows, or who vandalize Islamic
centers, or who shoot up Arab gathering places, or who
terrorize American citizens of Arab descent or Islamic
faith. God will be seen in those of us who stretch out a
hand of love to those who are different from us, even
Arabs, even Muslims. God will be seen in our acts of
kindness, forbearance, and understanding.

That isn’t to say that I don’t want justice done for those
who supported the horror rained down upon our great nation
last Tuesday. I do. I want those responsible found and
punished to the fullest extent of the law. Americans crave
justice in this case. I hope that we also remember that
judgement is God’s.

Life will go on in our country. New York will rebuild its
shattered financial district. The Pentagon will be
rebuilt. But there is something else that has been taken
from us, something that will not so easily be rebuilt.
Our sense of safety. Our innocence. Our belief that our
strong, powerful, dominant country is somehow invulnerable.

I disagree that this is a new Pearl Harbor. It isn't,
because there is no identifiable Japan, no single nation
or alliance of nations who have attacked the United States
militarily in an act of war. Perhaps it is more like the
assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo toward the
beginning of the last century -- the act of a lone
assassin. That act evolved into the First World War as
nation after nation got into the act of reprisals and
revenge and retaliation. Soon the whole world was
engulfed.

I am afraid the new century is starting out as badly as
the last one. Senseless and horrific acts of violence
have obliterated hundreds, probably thousands of innocent
people in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. I fear
what will come next.

May God have mercy on us. Grant us your peace.

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We are glad you are partners in ministry with us here at
Chi Rho Press. We are eager for your comments, your
suggestions, your assistance with selling our books,
and your own purchases! And of course, we covet your
prayers for this ministry.

Grace and peace,

Adam DeBaugh, Director
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If you've received our Chi Rho Connection as a result of the good offices of
someone passing it along to you (which we certainly encourage) and would like to
receive it directly from us, please follow the directions at the end of our
Connection to subscribe.

For orders, please write to us: Orders@ChiRhoPress.com. If you have
questions, please write to Question@ChiRhoPress.com. For comments and
suggestions about this eNewsletter, please write Connection@ChiRhoPress.com. To learn about our Guardian Angel Individual Sponsor Program, please write Angels@ChiRhoPress.com. For all other correspondence, please write Adam@ChiRhoPress.com.

Our snail mail address is:

Chi Rho Press, Inc.
P.O. Box 7864
Gaithersburg, MD 20898

Our telephone and fax number is 301/926-1208.

Our Canadian friends can order using credit cards on our web page or through
our Canadian distributor, MAP Enterprises, Mary Ann Pearson, Box 340, 54
Centre St., Odessa, ONT., Canada, K0H 2H0; e-mail: mapenterprises@home.com;
phone or fax: 1-613-386-5711; or toll free (leave a message) 1-877-245-9569.

Copyright 2001, Chi Rho Press, Inc.

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